The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
In general, refrigerators are home appliances for storing foods at a low temperature in a storage space that is covered by a door. For this, refrigerators cool the inside of the storage space by using cool air generated by being heat-exchanged with a refrigerant circulated into a refrigeration cycle to store foods in an optimum state.
The inside of the refrigerator may be classified into a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment. Receiving members such as shelves, drawers, and baskets may be disposed within the refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment. Also, the refrigerating compartment and the freezing compartment may be closed by a door. The refrigerator is classified into various types according to positions of the refrigerator compartment and the freezer compartment and configurations of the doors.
The refrigerator tends to increase in size more and more, and multi-functions are provided to the refrigerator as dietary life changes and pursues high quality, and accordingly, refrigerators of various structures in consideration of user convenience are brought to the market.
For example, the refrigerator may include an ice making device for making ice. The refrigerator may further include a dispenser for dispensing the made ice to the outside thereof. The ice making device may be provided in a door of the refrigerator to improve user's convenience or efficient use of a storage space. The ice making device may make ice in a space of the refrigerator by using cool air to store the made ice.
However, to make ice in the refrigerator having the above-described structure, it may be necessary to provide a passage or structure for supplying cool air within the refrigerator. Also, in order to make ice, it may be necessary to drive a refrigeration cycle regardless of a state within the refrigerator.
To solve the above-described limitations, a structure in which an insulation space for accommodating an ice making device is defined in a door of a refrigerator, and a thermoelectric module is provided in the insulation space to cool the inside of the insulation space, thereby making ice in the ice making device disposed in the insulation space is disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0814687 and Korean Patent Publication No. 10-2010-0057216.
However, in the structure of the refrigerator, a heat dissipation side of the thermoelectric module may be exposed to the inside of the refrigerator to deteriorate cooling efficiency within the refrigerator. In addition, since a structure of discharging hot air of the heat dissipation side of the thermoelectric module is not provided, there is difficulty in effective cooling.